Youth training comes of age

Inadequacies in youth training systems have been blamed for China's so-far fruitless search to unearth its very own Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

The publication late last month, however, of a new youth soccer blueprint aims to put in place building blocks to one day make that dream a reality, and at the very least give the nation's next generation of talent a better chance of succeeding on the global stage.

The 109-page Chinese Football Association document seeks to clarify the aims, philosophies and coaching guidelines of the country's youth soccer setup. With contributions from domestic and foreign experts, scholars and elite coaches, work began on the document in 2018, with a final draft sent to Chinese Super League clubs for feedback and suggestions before a revised edition was published.

The blueprint specifies three goals: 1) Nurturing a group of domestic players and coaches to reach the same high standards of developed soccer nations. 2) To allow all Chinese national teams, including the Olympic and youth sides, to have a unified playing style. 3) To enable all Chinese teams to qualify for the world's top tournaments.

"First of all, we need to set clear development goals. And based on those goals, we need to explore our training philosophies and study how these philosophies will be influenced and affected by the global soccer environment. Step by step, we can finally achieve our goals and turn our philosophies into reality," said Gao Hongbo, a vice-president of the CFA and former Team China head coach.

The last and only time Team China qualified for the World Cup was in 2002. The chances of the current crop of national-team players making the 2022 finals in Qatar look slim while the men's Olympics team has missed out on a ticket to the Tokyo Games. The last time China's men played at an Olympics was in 2008 when they automatically qualified as host in Beijing.